The Rocks
I was a timid little antelope;My home was in the rocks, the lonely rocks.
I saw the hunters scouring on the plain;I lived among the rocks, the lonely rocks.
I was a-thirsty in the summer-heat;I ventured to the tents beneath the rocks.
Zuleikah brought me water from the well;Since then I have been faithless to the rocks.
I saw her face reflected in the well;Her camels since have marched into the rocks.
I look to see her image in the well;I only see my eyes, my own sad eyes.My mother is alone among the rocks.
About this text
The Rocks is in the public domain. This text is taken from Ballads, Project Gutenberg ebook #2732; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Makepeace Thackeray, The Rocks, in Ballads (1849–1855), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2732, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thackeray-ballads/the-rocks.html, id L10357.
Form and metre
The Rocks is 13 lines in 6 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I was a timid little antelope; | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| My home was in the rocks, the lonely rocks. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I saw the hunters scouring on the plain; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| I lived among the rocks, the lonely rocks. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I was a-thirsty in the summer-heat; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I ventured to the tents beneath the rocks. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Zuleikah brought me water from the well; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Since then I have been faithless to the rocks. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I saw her face reflected in the well; | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Her camels since have marched into the rocks. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| I look to see her image in the well; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I only see my eyes, my own sad eyes. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| My mother is alone among the rocks. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.